2026 Kirby Seminar List

Professor Achinthi C. Vithanage, Executive Director of Environmental Law Programs & Professor of Law for Designated Service in Environmental Law at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.

In-person and online: 4:00 PM for 5:00 PM AEST Start, Tuesday 4 August 2026

UNE Sydney, 28 George St Parramatta NSW 2150.

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In a time of environmental crises, environmental sustainability is no longer the purview of solely environmental lawyers. All lawyers must be on the frontlines of climate action. As officers of the courts with a duty to promote justice, all lawyers have an obligation to use their skills in service of addressing the climate crisis. Bar associations and law societies worldwide are beginning to recognise this and are leading collaborative efforts to build this awareness and momentum. Educational institutions are also paying heed to their role in teaching the next generation of lawyers. This presentation will discuss some of those efforts and how, together, they are promoting an evolution in the role of the legal profession.

Professor Achinthi C. Vithanage is the Executive Director of Environmental Law Programs & Professor of Law for Designated Service in Environmental Law at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, where she teaches, researches, and writes scholarship in the field of international environmental law, and was the recipient of the 2025 Ottinger Award for Faculty Achievement. Professor Vithanage is recognised as one of the United States’ leading environmental and energy lawyers with listings in LawDragon’s inaugural Environmental and Energy Lawyers list in 2021 and in LawDragon’s 500 Leading Environmental Lawyers Guides for 2023, 2024, and 2025. Within the American Bar Association’s Section on Environment Energy & Resources (SEER), she served on its Governing Council (2023–2025), heads the Law Student Transition Task Force, is a member of the Sustainability in Legal Education and Climate Change Task Forces, is the founding Co-Chair of the Environmental Law Society Network, and is a former Co-Chair of the International Law Committee. She serves on the Secretariat to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Academy of Environmental Law, co-leads the Climate Change Collaborative Research Network for the Law & Society Association, Chairs the Human Rights & the Environment Specialist Group of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, and is an originating member of the International Association of Energy Law, a global network of early career energy law professors. Most recently, she attended COP30 and COP28 as the ABA Delegate and serves on several Boards, including the Editorial Advisory Board for the Environmental Law Institute’s Environmental Forum publication, the Editorial Board for Yearbook of International Environmental Law, the Board of Directors of the Federated Conservationists of Westchester County, and the Sustainable Business Law Hub’s Advisory Board. Prior to joining Pace Haub Law, Professor Vithanage was a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School (GW Law). Professor Vithanage was born in Sri Lanka, lived in the United Arab Emirates, practised as an attorney in the state of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia, and undertook tertiary studies in Australia, Japan, China, Spain, and the United States, providing her a unique international perspective.